Hi,

New to this forum, having recently purchased a 89 camry wagon. I also have a 66 MGB and a 58 Wolseley 1500.

I am working towards making the Camry pass it's roadworthy, and one of the issues is that the front bump stops need replacing.

Being fundamentally lazy, I'm not in a hurry to pull the whole front end apart, and was wondering if its possible to replace these stops, by compressing the spring, undoing the top nut and then dropping the shock and wheel assembly,
then fit the stop over the top of the shock, raise back into place and redo the nut?

Thanks

Herb

 

Not sure what you are talking about? Are these the upper strut mounts or stops on the strut rod?

The large nut holds the strut and large coil spring together as a unit. The spring is compressed when installed, if you remove the large nut the spring will expand violently to pull the assy apart. You don't want this to happen.

There should be 3 exposed nuts around the larger nut. Once these nuts are removed the strut assy will be free of the strut tower.

To remove the strut, first unbolt the brake line from the strut tube then unbolt the tube from the steering knuckle. Unbolt the upper strut mount then pull the lower strut tube out of the knuckle.

Once the strut is out you need a spring compressor to compress the coil spring before removing the large nut.

Note how the strut mount is oriented as installed in the strut mount. There may be an arrow pointing in or out from the engine compartment on the upper part of the mount.

A YouTube or a internet search should have videos or post replacing the strut assy.

 

Thanks for your reply, Joey,

The stops appear to be the ones at the top of the strut. The roadworthy report simply says "Front bump stops" and inspection shows that there is a plastic cup shaped thing down at the bottom and a yellow something at the top, which I assume are the, broken, bump stop bits.

My query is if I can compress the spring in situ and undo the nut at the top to drop the spring, strut etc, as a unit to access the bump stop bits. I don't particularly want to remove the strut assembly, from the car.

Thanks

Herb

 

You may be able to take the large nut off with the strut assy still bolted to the car but will never be able to reinstall it. Suggest you not attempt this.

The only way it to remove the strut assy from the car, take it apart and reinstall.

The bumper stop items slide onto the rod that the large nut screws on to.

If you have a spring compressor the job is straight forward enough.

You can remove the tire, then with the car safely jacked up look up into the strut wheel and see the bumper items inside the spring.